In this issue: Learn what the Expert Gap™ is, why AI search is changing how expertise gets discovered, and five ways to make your expertise easier to find, understand, trust, remember, and choose.
What London, the Appalachians, and eMarketer reveal about the path from expertise to recognition
If you’ve traveled through London, you’ve heard the warning:
Mind the gap.
It reminds passengers to notice the space between the train and the platform before taking the next step.
I photographed those words during one of my London trips because I’ve always been fascinated by signs and the bigger meanings ordinary words can take on.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about a different kind of gap.
It’s the distance between what experienced leaders know and how clearly other people recognize, understand, trust, and choose their value.
I call it the Expert Gap™.
Why does this matter to you?
If you’re an experienced leader, executive, advisor, speaker, or client-facing expert, your next opportunity may depend on what people discover before they ever meet you. Closing the Expert Gap can strengthen your credibility, improve qualified visibility, and make it easier for the right people to recognize when your expertise fits their needs.
From London to the Appalachians
A recent anniversary trip to Asheville gave the word “gap” another meaning.
In the Southern Appalachians, a gap is a low point in a mountain ridge. It’s a place where passage becomes possible.
Last year, Bruce and I celebrated our 40th anniversary on a rooftop overlooking Florence. This year, we celebrated 41 years on a terrace overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains at the historic Omni Grove Park Inn.
That’s a difficult view to follow.
But celebrations don’t have to outdo the ones that came before them. They only need to let us stop long enough to recognize where we are now and who’s still sitting across the table.
As I looked across the mountains, the contrast stayed with me.
In London, the gap is something to notice before stepping forward.
In the Appalachians, the gap may be the way forward.
Maybe the gaps in our professional lives can be both.
Does Your Presence Match Your Expertise?
Does your public presence accurately reflect the expertise and success you’ve already built?
For many accomplished leaders, the honest answer is no.
They have years of experience, valuable perspectives, meaningful results, and hard-earned credibility. Yet those qualities aren’t always visible to the people who could benefit.
The Expert Gap™ is the distance between the expertise you’ve earned and how clearly others recognize, understand, trust, and choose its value.
The problem isn’t a lack of talent.
Experienced leaders can be overlooked. Capable team members may hold back. Client-facing professionals may have exactly the knowledge their clients need, yet struggle to make their value clear and relevant.
Association members may have deep expertise but find it difficult to explain why their perspective matters now.
Women leaders may still feel expected to prove what they’ve already earned.
In an AI-shaped world, the Expert Gap can begin before a personal conversation ever takes place.
A LinkedIn profile, executive bio, website, referral, search result, podcast appearance, media mention, or AI-generated summary may shape whether someone understands your expertise and chooses to take the next step.
What gets seen shapes what gets chosen.
Sometimes Good Work Whispers
We’ve all heard that good work speaks for itself. Sometimes it whispers.
If people can’t quickly understand what you know, why it matters, and where you create value, they may move on before discovering the depth of your experience.
Closing the Expert Gap means making your expertise easier to:
Find in the places people look for answers
Understand in language connected to current priorities
Trust through credible and consistent signals
Remember through a clear point of view
Choose when an opportunity or decision comes up
The opportunity is to close the distance between what you know and what others recognize.
What eMarketer Revealed About AI Visibility
At eMarketer’s Future of Digital Summit, analysts and marketing leaders explored how AI is changing discovery, customer journeys, marketing operations, and the path to purchase.
The central message was dramatic: the next three years may reshape digital marketing more than the previous decade.
My biggest takeaway was that future visibility will depend on being trustworthy to people and understandable to machines.
Three findings stood out.
1. AI visibility is part of a much bigger ecosystem
People still spend most of their digital time with search, video, audio, social media, websites, and online communities.
AI matters because it can influence how people begin their research, compare possibilities, and narrow their choices.
Someone might move from an AI-generated answer to Google, LinkedIn, a podcast, a media article, a website, and a personal recommendation before making a decision.
That means your website, LinkedIn presence, thought leadership, speaking, media coverage, relationships, and reputation still matter.
AI discovery draws from the broader presence you’ve already built.
2. Very few marketers have a formal AI visibility strategy
Research presented at eMarketer’s 2026 Future of Digital Summit found that:
50% of U.S. marketers are exploring or piloting AI search visibility.
47% have an informal strategy, often treated as an addition to SEO.
Only 2% report having a formal GEO or AEO strategy with dedicated resources.
That’s a wide-open market.
You don’t have to master every new acronym overnight. You do need a clear system for being known, understood, accurately described, and recommended.
That system can include:
Clear positioning
Current website content
Original perspectives and named ideas
Thought leadership
Consistent biographies and profiles
Media mentions
Speaking, podcast, and video content
Testimonials and case studies
Third-party sources that validate your expertise
AI visibility isn’t created by adding a few phrases to your website. It’s built through a connected and credible presence.
3. Being cited isn’t the same as being recommended
A person or company can appear as a source in an AI-generated answer without becoming the person or brand the system recommends.
The question is no longer simply, “Are we showing up?”
We also need to ask:
Are we being described accurately?
Are we associated with the expertise we want to own?
Are we included in the right comparisons and shortlists?
Is the information current?
Do credible third parties support the story?
Are people and machines given a reason to choose us?
This is where the Expert Gap becomes especially important.
Someone may have extraordinary expertise but lack the consistent signals that allow people, search engines, and AI systems to recognize its value.
What This Means for You
If you’re an executive or expert: Make sure your bio, LinkedIn profile, website, and thought leadership consistently support the expertise you want to own.
If you lead a professional-services firm: Review how your firm and its experts are described, compared, cited, and recommended across search and AI platforms.
If you lead an association: Give members clearer opportunities to publish, speak, contribute, and become recognized for their industry knowledge.
If you plan leadership programs: Treat visibility as a leadership capability, not simply a personal-branding exercise.
The Most Human Use of AI
The most practical value marketers are finding in AI isn’t replacing human creativity or expertise.
It’s speeding up research, measurement, analysis, testing, synthesis, and other time-consuming work.
The best use of AI isn’t to make your brand sound more automated.
It’s to create more time for the work only humans can do: exercise judgment, develop original ideas, build relationships, tell meaningful stories, and lead important conversations.
You don’t need another AI tool simply because everyone is talking about it.
You need clarity about the expertise you want to be known for, the people who need it, and the outcomes you can create.
Expert Gap™ FAQs
What is the Expert Gap™?
The Expert Gap™ is the distance between the expertise someone has earned and how clearly others recognize, understand, trust, and choose its value.
How does AI affect leadership visibility?
AI systems may use websites, media coverage, professional profiles, reviews, videos, podcasts, social content, and third-party sources to describe and recommend experts. Inconsistent or incomplete information can make valuable expertise harder to recognize.
How can leaders close the Expert Gap™?
Leaders can start by clarifying what they want to be known for, updating their primary profiles and biographies, publishing useful original perspectives, strengthening credible third-party proof, and creating a consistent path from discovery to action.
Ready to Close the Gap?
My new keynote, Close the Expert Gap™ With a Brighter Presence™, explores how visibility becomes trust, influence, and opportunity.
We can customize workshops and programs for associations, leadership and talent teams, professional-services organizations, and women’s leadership programs.
Keynotes and Team Programs
Bring the Expert Gap™ to your conference, association, leadership meeting, or professional-development program through a keynote, interactive workshop, Leadership Visibility Lab, or customized team training.
Strategic Advisory
If your message, website, LinkedIn presence, executive positioning, or thought leadership no longer reflects the level of expertise you’ve earned, we can identify what’s unclear and decide what needs to change next.
A Focused Second Opinion
Already working through an important message, keynote, offer, visibility strategy, or opportunity?
A focused advisory session can give you experienced perspective without turning the question into a sprawling consulting engagement.
If you’re planning a 2027 program or want your public presence to catch up with your expertise, let’s talk about what comes next.
Where I’m Speaking
In October, I’ll lead Speaker SOS: From Scary Submissions to Standout Stages at NSA Carolinas’ Speak or Treat in Myrtle Beach.
It’s a hands-on session for speakers who want to identify better opportunities, strengthen their proposals, and build a more strategic path to the right stages.
Recently Published
Our 41st anniversary getaway became a reflection on Asheville, art, mountain views, marriage, and the distance we sometimes travel without realizing it.
Twenty-five years later, I’m reflecting on how September 11 changed community communications and what leaders still need to remember about communicating with clarity, credibility, and care.
The View From Here
A gap doesn’t always mean you’ve failed to do enough, become enough, or accomplish enough.
Sometimes it simply shows where the connection hasn’t been made yet.
In London, the warning is to notice the gap before stepping forward. In the Appalachians, the gap is where a new route may open.
The gap can be frustrating. It can also become the passage forward.
Where is the gap between what you know and what the people who need that expertise can currently see?
I’d love to hear your answer.
Until next time, keep building a Brighter Presence™.
Barbara
Barbara Rozgonyi
Leadership Visibility Keynotes, Workshops, and Consulting
Creator: Brighter Presence™ Expert Gap™
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